A "Swede" experience

Hello long lost sister...

Sometimes, when there's a lot that's happened, it gets hard to find the time to do a big update on all of it. Which is why I haven't posted anything since the biggest thing that's happened here in a while - Mom and Dad's trip to Sweden!

I was thinking about it and their trip might have been one of the only times in my life I've had the two of them all to myself... and I thoroughly enjoyed it:) We talked about what they wanted to do and they said it would be fun to see the people and places that I would see during my normal routine in the city...

We started off with a trip to the boat, which I have not-so-affectionately dubbed "The Mistress" since she was the reason Bjorn wasn't home most of the Spring. I've learned to love her a bit too, now that we can go out there together most of the time.  Henry comes along, and thanks to his grandparents is the proud owner of a green life jacket (that came in very handy a couple weeks later when he fell off the boat into the water on accident). Other than that one little mishap he's turned into quite the "boat dog".

Two of my favorite guys.

Here's "The Mistress" in all of her husband-stealing glory...

My little man.

After a fun day in Djurgården!

Mom and Dad went with me to visit Hillsong Church! It was fun for me to take them there and I think they really liked it. I think you would love it though. So you'll just have to come visit so you can go with me:)

Dad and I outside of the photography museum, Fotografiska.

 

 

Mom and I waiting on the metro, or "tunnelbanan" in Swedish.

One night we went to my absolute favorite restaraunt in the city- Indian Garden. Last Spring I found out that Indian Garden also happens to be Amy's favorite restaraunt so it was the perfect place for Mom and Dad to meet her and her Swedish husband, Mattias.

In true Dad style, he had introduced us all to the servers and had a good talk with them before we left. I guess I've been living in Sweden too long because it's started to feel weird to talk to people I don't know. Guess I needed a good dose of Dad's southern charm:)

Remember Oskar? He's been a friend of Bjorns since university and is a really great guy. Dad met him at wedding celebration last May and called him  to meet for lunch. They met one day for lunch and another day for coffee and I think they both had a great time!

Dad took lots of beautiful pictures of the flowers around Stockholm...

And they got to meet Naomi! Mom and Dad  went with me to pick her up from her school, just like it was a normal day. We walked back to her apartment where her parents, Zach and Vanessa, made us a great dinner! Naomi and her parents have been a big part of my last year in Stockholm and I was so happy for Mom and Dad to meet them. 

Among the many ways Dad and Mom spoiled me when they were here was to set up a massage at The Central Bath, or Centralbadet. We even had a hot stone treatment! It was so relaxing and a really nice treat for me! 

During the weekend we went to visit Bjorn's mom, Margaretha, and her Bjorn in Gothenburg. They were so nice to have all of us over! We took a long walk around Gothenburg during the day and at night we went to Thörnströms kök. It's a really nice, small restaurant in the city. They have set menus, so you decide which menu your group wants then they serve all kinds of food in 6-8 courses. It was all really good though!

The dinner group at Thörnströms kök

Someone was pretty happy when we got home though... He's not the biggest fan of alone time.

The next day we went to Goose Island in Gothenburg's archipelago. Bjorn Sr. has a house on the island and we got to spend the night there! You can only get there by boat, so with no cars and not too many people, it's the perfect place to relax. Henry got free roam of the place which meant he never wanted to leave. Can't really blame him :)

Their beautiful garden

 

We took a walk/hike to the highest lookout point on the far side of the island. There were amazing views the whole way!

Made it to the top!

Love this picture of Mom and Dad:)

And the little man found his favorite thing to do: Running and jumping from rock to rock along the hike.

Why go over the bridge when you could walk through the muddy water instead? Needless to say, he got a bath when we got back to the house.

Houses on Goose Island

A nearby town on the mainland you can see from the island.

The next day before we headed back to Gothenburg we took Bjorn Sr.'s boat to a nearby town named Grundsund. It's a cute town right on the water with boats everwhere. There's this great local restaurant we went to there, and the food was delicious! Just ask Dad about the Ling...

 

Henry showing us the way:)

We made it back to Stockholm and had a few days before Mom and Dad had to go back. I had to go to school one morning so Mom and Dad took a walk around dowtown with Henry. Here's Mom and Henry at the Parliment building.

After class, Amy and I met Mom, Dad, and Henry for lunch. It felt so strange to just be able to meet them for lunch after school! That's not a luxury I normally have, so I was pretty excited about it.

On the last night they were here we went to the Ice Bar! I have to say that I don't know if I would have been as tempted to go on my own- for more than half of the last two years I've lived in colder temperatures than the ice bar, so I try not to seek out the cold. But it was really amazing!

We got special jackets and gloves  to wear inside

So far, so good!

The glasses for our drinks were made of ice too!

Me sitting in the chair made of ice...

...and Mom looking through the side of the ice chair

She was having a bit of a hard time towards the end:) 

I was really sad when Mom and Dad left, I miss them a lot and it's just more fun when they're around. But I am so thankful that they were able to come and spend time with us here! I know we all felt pretty spoiled after they left. I know you're in Dothan with them this weekend, definitely wish I could be there too! I guess I'll have to wait a little while before seeing them again, but in the meantime, make sure to give them lots of hugs from me, Bjorn, and Henry!

We're going with Amy and Mattias to Mattias' parents house in the archipelago this weekend. Sebastian, his brother, and another friend of Amy's, Sara, are all coming too. I'm excited, I think it will be a lot of fun! I'll take some pictures and put up a post when I get back... I promise it won't take me two months this time:)

Miss you Whiggle, and hope you have a good weekend. Make sure to give Logan a giant hug for me.

Love you.
Allie

Beaches and Bandits

Yes...unfortunately about a week ago, we had our first experience with a break-in. Al, you never think it is going to happen until it does! Whoever the bandits were, they made off with our tv's and my laptop! All my pictures and files....gone. Not mention the door and window they shattered in the process. I really wish we could have caught those guys too! I am so thankful that we were not home! It could have been a lot worse, so we are still very fortunate. So that is why I have been a little MIA lately....I am however, looking forward to our beach trip with the Browns next week! Two more days until VACATION finally starts!

 We are headed up to the coast of South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach and I am PUMPED! I'll have limited access to posting pictures but will do my best to let you know how it's going!

In the meantime, let me know what you've been doing over there! I need pictures woman!!! p.s. hug Henry for me too:)

-Whiggle

nephews, parents, and flowers

Hey Al! I can't believe Mom and Dad are already there and hanging out with you! I also can't believe that it's been a year since we were all there as a family! Time definitely flies by these days....I think I've already told Mom and Dad about twenty million times how much I wish I could have hopped on that plane with them to come see you, but I think you already know that if I could be there, I'd be there in a heartbeat! For now, enjoy all the time you can with the parents! They are pretty fun to hang out with in my book:)

In the meantime....here's what we've been up to the last few weeks...Lots of traveling, visiting, and of recent....gardening!

First, a couple weekends ago, I went down to visit M & D for the weekend before they left to see you. I had such a fun visit with them....They are probably the cutest...funniest, married couple I know. We are so blessed to have parents that want to spend time with us like they do:)

On their plane to Sweden!

Dad took me on a nice little ride on his new bike...Man can that thing fly down the road....I couldn't help but squeal as we took off from each stop, and tried not to look at the speedometer as it crept up to 75 miles an hour. But it was so much fun!

Saturday afternoon, our friends Jeff and Kalli stopped by to spend the night with us on their way to the beach....and Mom and Dad got to meet June...and they instantly fell in love. She's probably the best baby I know..so it's pretty easy to do that. (sorry for the bad light in these pictures:)

This was pretty much all mom did the whole night...Kalli was so nice to let us love on June, give her bath, and put her pj's on. (I forgot to tell Kalli before she got there that she might not hold her child the whole night....Fortunately, she was ok with that. It comes with the territory). 

Sunday after Church, it was warm enough to do a little sunbathing....with Rudy, of course. I don't know how that dog could enjoy sitting outside with that much fur, but he was good company, for a little while at least.


Last weekend, we finally got to meet our newest nephew, Nolan. He was born January 1st of this year, and it's been killing me to not see him sooner, but our schedules could never match up to go up to Raleigh, so wait we did. It worked out really good since they came down to Atlanta, and stayed with the grandparents, while Jon and Melissa were at a wedding. So we got to do some extra helping with both Nolan, and Parker, who is now 2 1/2 years old and everywhere.

 Nolan was a happy and sleepy guy almost the whole weekend....Sam is not really asleep here, by the way.

Parker loves his Pee-pa so much...he pretty much mimics everything he does. It's hilarious.

When he's not doing that...he's flipping on every single light switch he can reach, and repeating the words "ON" and "OFF" over and over again.

And he's fast...not really wanting to stop for any pictures....so I took what I could get;)

He's such a fun kid though...Sam and I took him on a walk around the neighborhood and he was talking non-stop. Literally ever mailbox we went by he asked, "What is that? How do you open it?" It was really cute at first, but by mailbox number 20...I finally said, "Parker, you tell me what that is..." and he knew exactly what it to say.

I also did a lot of this...Nolan's personality is coming out a lot... I absolutely love his smile.

 I did manage one good picture with these two rascals:) and then we had to head back to Bham...I can't wait to see these guys again in June at the beach!

This weekend...we got real motivated and decided it was finally time to do something about our front yard, which was in desperate need of some major TLC. So we got up early Saturday morning, headed over to a garden shop, and picked out a lot plants! I still don't know how we fit everything into the car...

We give the green machine a hard time, but it really can hold a ton of stuff! By the time we got back to the house, we were both raring to get planting, but it didn't quite happen until we spent about 20 minutes arguing about how we were actually going to clear the yard and space out the plants. You think it would be a simple thing to do...but no. I'm still laughing at how poor our communication skills can be sometimes. I guess we are both a lot more stubborn than we realize. 

 I've also never seen this guy so dirty...His hands and fingers were completely black by the time we called it a day...I swore I wouldn't let him inside until I sprayed him off with the yard hose, but he refused, slipped his shoes off, and stole inside before I had time to catch him.

We did get a really good "dirt tan" though. I was pretty proud of myself, Al. I think the flowers will look good by the time they are fully grown too.

Black and Blue Salvia

Pretty, but can't remember the name:)

Hydrangeas

More updates on the yard when we see some significant growth! Next project....painting the kitchen cabinets! Boy, do we have our work cut out for us there!

Have fun with Mom and  Dad this week!

Love you all,

Whit

Short and sweet

Hey Whiggle,

This is going to be really short, but I thought I could catch you up on this last weekend! We went to Malmö to visit Björns dad and some friends, and had a really nice weekend. It's hard to believe that the last time we saw Björn's dad was when you were with us almost a year ago! This time we came back with our newest family member, Henry, and had a lot of fun with him. This was the first time he had his own backyard to run around in and he loved it. There was a dog park close by and on Saturday we took him out there. There were these birds all around and he decided to try to catch one. I'm pretty sure the birds were almost bigger than him, but that didn't stop him...

Poor little guy, never had a chance of catching one, but it was extremely entertaining to watch him try...

Do you remember when we went to to that park near the Turning Torso in Malmo last year? We took Henry to that same park-

Henry and Bjorn's dad, Klas

 And guess who decided to follow Bjorn out into the cold ocean water? Yep, he's braver than me.

Definitely sweet.

That's all for now, I have to get a ton of stuff done before the parents get here in a few days. Seriously excited about that. Henry is too,  I've been telling him all about how he's going to get to see his grandparents... :)

Wish you were coming, but we'll plan something fun to do so I can see you. Miss you Whiggle, hope you're having a good week!

Love you,
Allie